This invention relates generally to puzzles.
Puzzles of the type with which the present invention is concerned are old, being shown in a number of prior patents, one of the most explicit being U.S. Pat. No. 3,698,719. Essentially, this type of puzzle comprises a number of individual rings, each of which is articulately loosely connected to one end of a short post, all of the posts in turn being loosely anchored at their other ends in a common base member. An elongated closed loop straddles the posts and passes through the rings in a uniform manner. To solve the puzzle, i.e., to remove the loop, requires a very lengthy series, depending on the number of rings involved, of precise steps. Likewise, to replace the loop afterwards requires the entire procedure to be repeated, but in reverse.
Until the puzzle is thoroughly mastered, its solution is tedious, time consuming and frustrating because unless the proper steps are rigidly followed, the loop cannot be removed. Errors are as difficult to correct as it is to restore the loop to its starting position so one can begin over again. Both procedures require the loop to be held for protracted periods of time by the thumb and fingers of one hand while the rings are manipulated up or down with the thumb and fingers of the other hand, the loop simultaneously being slid to the left or right. The proper manipulation of the various elements of the puzzle requires exact coordination of the hands in removing the loop.